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Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Everlasting Design

In 40’s of Cali, the swimwear started getting in the women’s world. Designer Margit Fellegi designed a swimsuit for Cole of California. She was hired by Fred Cole who stared the company Cole of California. “Fellegi had developed a “Matletex process” which allowed any natural fiber fabric and primarily cotton. This process allowed Fellegi to manipulate the style lines of her swimsuit designs without sacrificing a close fit. Fellege’s combination of distinct patterns, vibrant colors and unusual design lines caught the eye of both film stars and average women.”(newsletter. 3 Jun 2011.Swimsuits, Beachwear, History & Vintage References Margit Felligi and Cole of California)

This picture is showing the one of the designs from Margit Fellegi and it called the “Swoon Suit”.

You can see this kind of swimsuit has the high wist. It is the skinniest part of women’s body. Fellegi took advantage of it, made bottom wist line stop there. So that the women’s body can be perfect showed off. As a fashion designer, I think that was a really smart design. Also the bottom was folded. Fellegi created a nice pattern by folding it. "Women no longer should feel undressed in a bathing suit. After all, more and more social functions are centered around swimming pools and beach clubs. I try to make a woman feel lovely and elegant without making her aware of how naked she is."(By Margit Fellegi, 1965). She totally did what she said. The pattern she designed on the bottom of swimsuit made it looks not too simple and looks fashionable.

Right now in California, girls have bikinis. Even if bikinis came out in 40‘s. But it is not popular at that time. It “consisted of little more than two triangles of fabric for the bra, with strings that tied around the neck and back, and two triangles of fabric for the bottom,connected by strings at the hips.” (Webber-Hanchett, Tiffany. "Bikini.") But at that time, we are open enough. Girls cared about how pretty they look when they had swimsuit on. Just like what Fellegi said, they do not want to feel naked. Now, we are more open than before. Girls want to show their skin more than show the design of the swimsuit. That’s why girls more and more like bikinis.

So I look up the pictures of “swoon suit” again. I found out the design of this kind of swimsuit fully conforms the fashion trend. If we change it to a different type of fabric, and put the boots on, this design could be the outwear.